Elemental sulfur and acetate can support life of a novel strictly anaerobic haloarchaeon.

ABSTRACT: Archaea domain is comprised of many versatile taxa that often colonize extreme habitats. Here, we report the discovery of strictly anaerobic extremely halophilic euryarchaeon, capable of obtaining energy by dissimilatory reduction of elemental sulfur using acetate as the only electron donor and forming sulfide and CO2 as the only products. This type of respiration has never been observed in hypersaline anoxic habitats and is the first example of such metabolic capability in the entire Archaea domain. We isolated and cultivated these unusual organisms, selecting one representative strain, HSR2, for detailed characterization. Our studies including physiological tests, genome sequencing, gene expression, metabolomics and [(14)C]-bicarbonate assimilation assays revealed that HSR2 oxidized acet

SUBMITTER: Sorokin DY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4681856 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature